HKU POP SITE releases the latest figures of people's satisfaction with the current social conditions and their ethnic identityBack
| Press Release on June 21, 2004 |
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The Public Opinion Programme (POP) at the University of Hong Kong today releases on schedule via the "HKU POP SITE" (http://hkupop.pori.hk) the latest results of people's satisfaction with the current social conditions and their ethnic identity. POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday via our POP Site, but because tomorrow is a public holiday, we have shifted this week's release to today. Recent figures for various items are summarized as follows: |
| Date of survey | 13-18/6/03 | 8-10/9/03 | 10-14/12/03 | 6-9/3/04 | 7-11/6/04 | Latest change |
| Sample base | 1,043 | 1,021 | 1,059 | 1,030 | 1,027 | -- |
| Overall response rate | 68.0% | 70.9% | 63.5% | 65.0% | 66.9% | -- |
| Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | +/- 3% | -- |
| Sampling error of percentages (at 95% conf. level)* | +/- 0.14 | -- | +/- 0.14 | -- | +/- 0.16 | -- |
| Most concerned with economic problems | 72% | 74% | 65% | 64% | 63% | -1% |
| Most concerned with social problems | 18% | 13% | 22% | 17% | 20% | +3% |
| Most concerned with political problems | 5% | 4% | 6% | 10% | 10% | -- |
| Current political condition: Dissatisfaction rate** | 48% | 47% | 46% | 54% | 60% | +6% |
| Current political condition: Satisfaction rate** | 19% | 16% | 15% | 14% | 8% | -6% |
| Current economic condition: Dissatisfaction rate** | 82% | 68% | 62% | 43% | 55% | +12% |
| Current economic condition: Satisfaction rate** | 4% | 8% | 11% | 14% | 16% | +2% |
| Current social condition: Dissatisfaction rate** | 46% | 44% | 42% | 39% | 45% | +6% |
| Current social condition: Satisfaction rate** | 26% | 26% | 24% | 23% | 19% | -4% |
| Identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens" | 37% | -- | 25% | -- | 28% | +3% |
| Identified themselves as "Chinese Citizens" | 29% | -- | 33% | -- | 33% | -- |
| Identified themselves as "Hong Kong people" in broad sense | 56% | -- | 48% | -- | 49% | -1% |
| Identified themselves as "Chinese people" in broad sense | 41% | -- | 48% | -- | 47% | -1% |
| Rating of strength of "Hong Kong Citizens" identity | 7.57 | -- | 7.41 | -- | 7.54 | +0.13 |
| Rating of strength of "Chinese Citizens" identity | 7.32 | -- | 7.52 | -- | 7.48 | -0.04 |
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* "95% confidence level" means that if we were to repeat a certain survey 100 times, using the same questions each time but with different random samples, we would expect 95 times getting a figure within the error margins specified. |
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The latest figures of early June showed that 63% of the respondents were most concerned with economic problems these days, 20% with social problems, while 10% attached their greatest concern to political problems. Meanwhile, people's dissatisfaction rates with the current political, economic and social conditions were 60%, 55% and 45% correspondingly. |
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When asked to make a choice among 4 given identities, namely, "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen", 28% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong Citizens", 33% as "Chinese Citizens", 21% as "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens", while 14% identified themselves as "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens". In other words, 49% of the respondents identified themselves as "Hong Kong People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Hong Kong Citizens" or "Chinese Hong Kong Citizens"), whereas another 47% identified themselves as "Chinese People" in the broader sense (i.e. either as "Chinese Citizens" or "Hong Kong Chinese Citizens"). |
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Because concepts of "Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Hong Kong Citizen", "Chinese Citizen" and "Hong Kong Chinese Citizen" may overlap with each other, and making a one-in-four choice may not reflect the actual strengths of one's ethnic identities, POP has therefore conducted parallel tests on the strengths of people's separate identities as "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" using a scale of 0-10. The latest ratings registered in early June for "Hong Kong Citizens" and "Chinese Citizens" were 7.54 and 7.48 marks respectively. |
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Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, analyzed: "Our findings show that people's dissatisfaction with the current economic condition has gone up again, after it dropped significantly in the last quarter. This shows that people are still skeptical whether Hong Kong is undergoing an economic recovery. People's dissatisfaction with the political condition, on the other hand, has reached historical high, and continued to be the worst indicator of the three. On what could be an indicator of people's sense of belonging, the strength of people's identity as 'Hong Kong people' has rebounded after it dropped to historical low by the end of last year, which is a positive development." |
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POP's normal practice is to release the results of our regular surveys every Tuesday at 2 pm via our POP Site, except during public holidays, each time with a forecast of the items to be released in the forthcoming week. We will review and adjust this operation regularly. According to our schedule, the date and time of our next release will be June 29, 2004, Tuesday, at 2pm, the latest popularity of CE Tung Chee-hwa and HKSAR Government will be released. We will also release survey results related to the Handover Anniversary. |
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Shall anyone have any question regarding the research design of the surveys published in the POP Site, members of the POP Team will be happy to answer them, but we will not further comment on the findings. Shall any person or journalist have any other questions, please email them to us at <[email protected]. The Director of Public Opinion Programme would answer them as soon as possible. We will keep such an arrangement under constant review, suggestions most welcome. Please note that everything carried in the POP Site does not represent the stand of the University of Hong Kong. Dr Robert Ting-Yiu Chung, Director of Public Opinion Programme, is responsible for everything posted herewith, except for column articles which represent the stand of their authors. |
